No charges were filed in the case against Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. / Kim Klement, USA TODAY Sports

by Jennifer Portman and Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat

by Jennifer Portman and Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat

ZEPHYRHILLS,Fla. - The attorney for the woman who says Florida State star quarterback Jameis Winston raped her last year called Friday for an independent Attorney General's Office investigation of the case and the Tallahassee Police Department, but such action appears unlikely.

"The state attorney's office and FDLE did a thorough investigation of this case and they concluded that no further action on this matter is required," Gov. Rick Scott's spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said in an email.

During a more than 90-minute news conference, however, attorney Patricia Carroll of Dade City condemned TPD's handling of the case, as well as the later follow-up investigation by State Attorney Willie Meggs, which concluded last week with no charges being filed against Winston.

Carroll characterized the investigation as one rife with omissions, contradictions and sloppy police work that inappropriately focused on her client, not on Winston.

"If victims are subjected on an ongoing basis to what this victim was, there is a serious problem in the state of Florida and certainly the Tallahassee area," Carroll said. "This was an investigation of a rape victim, not an investigation of a rape suspect."

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Pam Bondi said the state's top prosecutor had spoken to Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey about a possible request from the woman's attorney regarding criminal allegations against TPD, but no formal request had been received as of Friday afternoon.

The AG's office does not have jurisdiction over individual judicial circuit cases and

FDLE would handle any criminal investigations of local law enforcement agencies.

Any investigation of an elected official, such as Meggs, would have to be initiated by the governor.

The governor's office also could order FDLE to investigate TPD, but agency spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said those requests typically come from police departments or local law enforcement agencies themselves.

"We have jurisdiction to conduct criminal investigations," Commissioner Bailey said. "We are not a quality-control monitor."

TPD spokesman David Northway declined to defend or comment on the work of department investigators or on the possibility of an inquiry into TPD handling of rape cases.

"The case is now closed and we continue to support Mr. Meggs and his endeavors as the state attorney," Northway said.

During the news conference, Carroll said "the politics of football" may have influenced TPD's investigation of the Dec. 7, 2012, sexual battery allegation against Winston and that Meggs didn't do enough before he decided to not file charges. Winston has led the Seminoles to the team's first national championship game in 14 years and the redshirt freshman is a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy to be announced Saturday.

Winston, who was in New York on Friday, told reporters, "I knew I did nothing wrong."

Meggs said he was not surprised by the criticism and knew early on that no matter what decision he reached in the case would be second-guessed.

"Do I think we did everything we needed to do? Yes. Do I see anything else we could could do? No," Meggs said. "Criticism comes with the territory. We worked within the limits of where we were and I am still satisfied with our decision."

In reviewing the 248-page investigative file released by Meggs to the public last week, Carroll said she found 152 pages of documents related to her client, including her cell phone records, texts, emails and social-media posts, but only 11 pages that contained Winston's name.

She noted that while Winston was identified by her client as the suspect in the alleged rape on Jan. 11, TPD Inv. Scott Angulo's first search warrant five days later was for the complainant's cell phone records. No search warrant, however, was requested to search Winton's apartment, obtain his DNA or retrieve his phone records or those of his two friends who were eyewitnesses of the incident.

Angulo failed to interview both fellow football players at the time and also did not conduct interviews with friends of the women who first reported the incident to Florida State police and were with her at Potbelly's bar earlier in the night of the alleged attack. By the time Winston was named as a suspect, the complainant had been interviewed five times, Carroll said.

Carroll said she specifically asked Angulo to obtain Winston's DNA, but the detective refused. He also cautioned Carroll that going forward would the case would make her client's life miserable because Tallahassee is "a big football town."

"We felt then that we were up against a situation with the Tallahassee Police Department," she said. "We didn't feel we would get a proper investigation. We didn't feel that we would get justice."

Carroll called her client a "reluctant victim" and expressed "grave concern" about the validity of tests on the woman's blood and urine, which found no drugs in her system.

Carroll said the woman's spotty memory, confusion and headache after the alleged rape was consistent with someone who had been given a so-called "date-rape drug."

She also questioned whether physical evidence from the woman's sexual-assault examination, which remained at TPD for 39 days before being sent to FDLE's lab for testing, was properly handled and secured.

"I don't have any faith in the nature of this investigation," Carroll said. "I told Mr. Meggs I had no confidence in this investigation."

Medical records released by Meggs' office, also were incomplete, Carroll contended, and left out details of the woman's injuries and pain medication she received.

"We perceive that as a problem that warrants further investigation," she said.

TPD's Northway said the woman's medical records were reacted to comply with federal health privacy laws. Meggs said such treatment reports were not part of the documents his office receives.

Carroll further questioned Megg's handling of the case, which was turned over by TPD to his office Nov. 12 after nine months of dormancy, following media inquires for the initial police report. Carroll said Meggs' 13-day investigation didn't go deep enough and an inordinate amount of time and resources were spent tracking down the woman's boyfriend, with whom she had consensual sex prior to the night of her alleged rape. DNA found on the woman matched both her boyfriend and Winston.

"That DNA (from the boyfriend) was from a time well in advance of the attack, yet that was the focus of the state attorney In this case," Carroll told reporters. "All they did was continue to investigate the victim."

Meggs said he had to determine the identity of the second male DNA sample to rule out likely defense arguments that the unknown person was the attacker. Meggs said the woman refused to identify her boyfriend.

"We can't make a case against someone and have DNA of another male that is unidentified," he said.

Carroll added the woman is doing as well as she can amid the media storm and vicious character attacks on social media websites. The 19-year-old dropped out her sorority, but is finishing her coursework remotely this semester.

"She's not doing well but she is a strong girl," Carroll said. "Her life's been turned upside down, but she is going to continue to try to heal."